Unemployment Levels - An Eye Opening Animation

I stumbled upon some interesting statistics for the US during a "class" I attended today (part of a set of "classes" I'm required to take for aid during my unemployment which began February 17th, 2010).

It shows, by months, the unemployment levels in the US starting in January 2007 and moving forward. It's obviously an "overview" and does not give any detail by job type, ethnicity, gender, etc... but it does give a sobering look at what's been happening for the past few years.

The original Flash animation is found here, while there is a YouTube link to a copy that is faster to load and watch, but at the time of this posting, is only through December of 2009.

I've been theorizing for years that, as technology advances, and as population increases, we will need less and less employed individuals to service "everyone".  I wonder what the "final unemployment numbers" will be once everything has settled.  Will they be even higher than they are now?  Lower?  Hmm.